Note 4 (now $200 rebate with any $10+ trade-in!)

[Axon]

What does this even mean? You can definitely tell he's not a fan.

Dude, I'm still trying to find out why "build quality" and "how it feels in hand" are like, even things at all.

 

[dawheat]

Thanks for the links.


(From the second review).

What does this even mean? You can definitely tell he's not a fan.

Heh PA has never liked Samsung phones so all things being said, it was a good review. Functionally, I like the combination of metal frame and grippy plastic back in the Note 4. The phone still feels extremely rigid, most of the pressure is on the metal frame, but your fingers get some traction on the back.

Aside from the looks, I don't know if a metal back would be better if you plan on carrying the phone without a case. Real leather might feel better but I assume it would not wear well and have issues with moisture. Maybe a carbon fiber weave like some of the Moto phones?

 

[Chocu1a]

Too bad the best buy promo doesn't apply to buying the phone outright.

 

[LtMikePowelll]

Did you guys see the new unbox therapy on how well the Note 4 and #bendgate. I was suprised that the Note 4 can be bend back to original shape.

 

[tdawg]

BB isn't selling the T-mobile Note 4 unfortunately.

Thought that might be the case. Guess they don't want to be involved in phone sales where they don't get to lock people in to the reseller ETF for 6 months.

 

[dawheat]

GSMarena review of the Snapdragon variant:

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note_4-review-1147.php

There's been some reports of below average battery life on the Exynos version, though the example I saw seemed to have a bad wakelock (battery usage chart had a constant slope, even when the phone was being used vs. off). Other user reports of the Exynos version have no issues with battery life.

My CC blocked the full charge from T-mobile yesterday which sucked - but T-mobile did call me this morning to re-submit the order. Unfortunately it looks like I "lost" my place in line as some early orders are reportedly already being shipped.

 

[LtMikePowelll]

I should have the phone by the 16th from T-mobile. I hope the battery on the Snapdragon will be decent.

 

[Trombe]

Looks like I'll get it today on my birthday

Baldwin Park, CA, United States 10/13/2014 5:05 A.M. Out For Delivery
10/13/2014 12:41 A.M. Arrival Scan
Ontario, CA, United States 10/12/2014 11:45 P.M. Departure Scan
10/12/2014 5:37 P.M. Arrival Scan
Louisville, KY, United States 10/12/2014 4:30 P.M. Departure Scan
10/12/2014 11:26 A.M. Origin Scan
United States 10/10/2014 5:36 P.M. Order Processed: Ready for UPS

 

[trmiv]

Wow jealous of you guys getting them already. Won't have my Verizon model until next Thursday.

 

[dawheat]

Got my T-mobile one today in black. Setting it up and playing around - everything feels snappy. I'm going to give the stock launcher a shot for a couple days instead of immediately installing Nova Prime like I normally do.

Will give my impressions later.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Got my T-mobile one today in black. Setting it up and playing around - everything feels snappy. I'm going to give the stock launcher a shot for a couple days instead of immediately installing Nova Prime like I normally do.

Will give my impressions later.

Looking forward to it.

 

[spacejamz]

Any ATT users get their shipping notice yet? Mine is still preparing to ship...

 

[Chrono]

Just preordered mine from Tmobile and a spigen case from amazon... can't wait! I played with it at best buy and really loved it. I'll be trading in a new boost mobile phone $50 from best buy that only has a TIV of $12. I'll be doing so today so I should hopefully get the $200 rebate... anybody else on tmobile trying to do the same?

 

[dawheat]

Just preordered mine from Tmobile and a spigen case from amazon... can't wait! I played with it at best buy and really loved it. I'll be trading in a new boost mobile phone $50 from best buy that only has a TIV of $12. I'll be doing so today so I should hopefully get the $200 rebate... anybody else on tmobile trying to do the same?

Yeah - though the site doesn't seem to be accepting submissions. The "guess" is that it won't work until the 17th.

 

[Trombe]

Anyone else with the black Note 4 notice that the horizontal lines of the front face/bezel design are on top of the capacitive button LEDs? Looks kinda funky with them running over like that.

 

[Shamrock]

I got my notice from Sprint, they are preparing shipping.

 

[tsupersonic]

Anandtech review of Note 4 posted.

 

[spacejamz]

Any ATT users get their shipping notice yet? Mine is still preparing to ship...

Mine should be here today

Scheduled For Early Delivery On:
Wednesday, 10/15/2014, By End of Day

 

[dawheat]

Anyone else with the black Note 4 notice that the horizontal lines of the front face/bezel design are on top of the capacitive button LEDs? Looks kinda funky with them running over like that.

Yeah took me a sec before I realized it was "design" and not some defect.

 

[s44]

Reviews are up. No surprises.

 

[dawheat]

Some quick thoughts after using it for less than a day and mostly setting it up:

1. The display is great, though from a resolution POV, I can't tell a difference with a high quality 1080p display. Auto-brightness in bright conditions work well - there was never a time I couldn't see the screen easily, though with the weather here, I haven't been able to test in summer-like direct sunlight. It calibrates a bit dimmer than I'd like in dim conditions, but is very nice in dark conditions (my eyeballs thank you).

Set to Basic mode, everything looks quite balanced, though the "whites" do seem slightly yellow compared to the OPO. Considering how tests seem to show it close, I think it's more a contrast to colder LCDs. Either way no issues here.

The contrast is noticeably better than the OPO screen - watching movies simultaneously on the Note 4 (Basic) and OPO, everything looked surprisingly better on the Note 4. The darks were darker and more detail could be seen, making brighter colors really pop out - not from oversaturation but in contrast to the dark darks.

2. I can't tell battery life but quick charge really does work. It's actually a little surprising when I charged it for 30 minutes before leaving work and it went from 30 to 90.

3. Fingerprint scanner works well enough for me. It took a few minutes to get the timing and angle right - but once you get the muscle memory, it works most of the time for me on the first try. I have 3 fingers loaded, all at 2 different angles (straight down and sideways).

One negative compared to Touch ID is when the phone is on a table at an angle for me. With Touch ID I could still hit the home button and it'll read. With this, I can't get the angle right so I need to re-orient the phone to be more directly facing me before swiping.

4. I like some of the new widgets in TW - the pedometer and S-pen widget especially. I'm glad they've moved toward transparent widgets and I'm actually still using them with Nova Prime.

I had to give up on stock launcher as I coudn't find a way to delete extra, unused home screens.

5. The phone build is great, though I kind of wish the aluminium sides were not colored and more like the Alpha. But it feels and looks good.

I stuck on a Ringke Slim case which I like quite a bit - it's probably the slimmest case I've ever seen which is great. Top drop protection however is not great as the lip is barely higher than the screen. I may get the Spigen slim case to compare with.

So like I've stated before, build quality is a little overrated if you're going to slap a case on a phone. I don't carry my phones naked since they always get scratched and over a year, it'll hit my floor at least once.

6. I've only really tried the front-facing camera and it is surprisingly good with a wide field of focus. I took a few with co-workers using the heartbeat sensor as the trigger and it was super-easy. I'll be trying out the rear camera more today.

7. Overall I'm still trying out the phone and haven't tried the new s-pen features (like taking a photo and converting it to text) but I'm enjoying it. I will agree that if you have a Note 3, it's not a huge upgrade.

However with the $200 pre-order offer from Samsung, it makes it a pretty reasonable $550 at full price. I sold my Note 3 a couple months ago for a pretty good price, making my total out of pocket pretty small.

 

[Muadib]

Nice review dawheat! Friday can't get here soon enough.

 

[rcpratt]

Reviews are up. No surprises.

I haven't seen too many reviews that are willing to declare a winner between the Note 4 and the 6+. Stop being politically correct and tell us what you think, dammit.

 

[spacejamz]

Mine should be here today

Scheduled For Early Delivery On:
Wednesday, 10/15/2014, By End of Day

UPS just dropped her off...slapped on a screen protector and she is charging now...going to meet some friends for dinner now so won't be able to play until later...

Upgrading from a Note 3 as well (primarily for the screen)....

 

[LtMikePowelll]

UPS just dropped her off...slapped on a screen protector and she is charging now...going to meet some friends for dinner now so won't be able to play until later...

Upgrading from a Note 3 as well (primarily for the screen)....

I'm also upgrade from Note 3, but I did it because when Tmobile make their Band 12 LTE available in LA and OC counties, I want to have signal in building.